In general, a medicine packing machine is used to automatically pack tablets when a doctor or pharmacist prepares a medicine based on a prescription at hospital or drugstore.
Conventional medicine packing machines can be classified into manual packing machines and automatic packing machines. The manual packing machine and the automatic packing machine are different in view of distributing tablets manually or automatically, but the same in view of automatically packing tablets and discharging medicine packages to the outside.
That is, the manual packing machine includes a circular or quadrilateral distribution tray with a plurality of holes. A doctor or pharmacist puts tablets into the holes manually, generally, puts tablets corresponding to a dose of medicine into each hole. The tablets put into the holes are packed by a packing unit provided in the lower portion of the manual packing machine, and then discharged to the outside.
Also, the automatic packing machine includes a plurality of cassettes which are arranged in the form of a plurality of drawers or in the form of a plurality of drums, in the upper portion. Tablets are classified depending on their kinds and stored in the cassettes. The tablets stored in the cassettes are discharged from the cassettes based on data received from a computer interfacing the automatic packing machine. The discharged tablets are collected in a hopper provided below the cassettes, and packed in the packing unit provided below the hopper.
The manual packing machine can be manufactured as a small-sized machine, and suitable to be used at a small drugstore or hospital, and the automatic packing machine is suitable to be used at a large drugstore or hospital where a large amount of medicines is prepared. Also, a combination of a manual packing machine and automatic packing machine is being used at some drugstores or hospitals.
However, cassettes installed in a conventional automatic packing machine cannot automatically discharge pieces of tablets such as half tablets or various-shaped tablets. Accordingly, pieces of tablets or various-shaped tablets should be supplied manually using a manual packing machine. Accordingly, the conventional medicine packing machine has a problem that a time consumed to prepare a medicine is long and reliability of medication is low due to mistakes, such as over-dosage or under-dosage of medication.
Meanwhile, since in the conventional medicine packing machine a doctor or pharmacist picks up and distributes tablets with his or her hand, there is a risk of bacterial infection due to the direct contact of the hand or other mediums. If tablets infected with even a bit of bacteria due to the direct contact of a human's hand, etc. are absorbed in the body, this may cause fatal diseases to serious cases with low immunity.